Fighting fire with fire

A wildfire in Lassen National Forest in northern California, where Penn State Professor Alan Taylor studied the impact of fire suppression policy. Who could find fault with Smokey the Bear, the gentle Ursus whose advice many Americans grew up following? Perhaps the spotted owl, for starters. To flourish, the endangered bird that's native to the western United States needs certain types of forests that aren't found in places where severe wildfires have occurred. Smokey, of course, encourages people to prevent fires, not to start them. But, suppression of naturally occurring blazes can have unintended consequences. Whether those include increasing the possibility for wildfires to become severe has been the focus of research recently completed by Alan Taylor, Penn State professor of geography. Taylor studied a mixed conifer forest in the Lassen National Forest in northern California known as the Cub Creek Research Natural Area, site of a wildfire in 2008.